Centers and Institutes

As a national research university, Northeastern is home to 37 interdisciplinary research centers and institutes, including an NSF-funded engineering research center and an NSF-funded nanotechnology center. Fifteen are headed by professors holding endowed chairs or distinguished professorships.

Affective Science Institute (ASI)
The ASI is a nexus for collaboration, training, and the exchange of ideas for researchers, clinicians, and other professionals in affective science in and around New England.

Antimicrobial Discovery Center
The Center translates basic discoveries into novel antimicrobial therapies to combat Biowarfare and conventional pathogen threats.  The rise of multidrug resistant pathogens and the threat of genetically engineered bioweapons represent an urgent need for antimicrobial therapies. The Center is funded by grants from the NIH, NSF, and DOE.

The Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis
An internationally recognized center for advanced interdisciplinary research and training in analytical chemistry and biotechnology, the Barnett Institute’s work includes proteomics, biomarker discovery, drug synthesis and development, environmental cancer agent detection and ultrasensitive instrumentation.

Center for Cognitive and Brain Health
The Center investigates the effects of lifestyle choices and health behaviors (e.g., physical activity, diet) and their physiological sequelae (e.g., fitness, adiposity) on brain and cognition. From a neuroimaging perspective, the researchers’ interests lie in understanding how health influences brain and behavior as it relates to increased health and effective functioning for individuals across the lifespan.

The Center for Complex Network Research (CCNR)
The Center’s objective is simple: think networks. Research focuses on how networks emerge/evolve, how they look, and how they impact our understanding of complex systems. CCNR’s research has developed to unexpected areas, including the topology of the World Wide Web; complex networks inside the cell, and the Internet’s Achilles’ Heel.

Center for Drug Discovery
The Center for Drug Discovery is dedicated to the discovery of novel medications and the development of approaches and technologies aimed at improving the discovery of new therapeutic drugs.

Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Complex Systems (CIRCS)
CIRCS fosters collaborations between researchers from different scientific and engineering disciplines who share a common interest in elucidating fundamental aspects of the structure and function of complex physical and biological systems across multiple levels of organization using a combination of quantitative state-of-the-art experimental and theoretical research tools.

The Electronic Materials Research Institute (eMRI) 
Electronic Materials Research Institute (eMRI) at Northeastern University has access to an extensive set of facilities for materials research in the areas of nanotechnology and biotechnology. Laboratory space includes a variety of special instrumentation and unique laboratory set-ups.

Marine Science Center
An internationally recognized research institution that focuses on the ocean environment, marine life and ecology, and discovering biotechnological and medical potentials in the sea. Projects include building underwater robots and creating genetically engineered seaweed to clean wastewater from agriculture facilities.

Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center
The Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center is providing a world-class computational infrastructure, indispensible in the increasingly sensor and data-rich environments of modern science and engineering discovery.

Network Science Institute
Working to discover and inspire fundamentally new ways to measure, model, predict and visualize meaningful interactions and interconnectivity of social, physical and technological systems.

New England Inflammation and Tissue Protection Institute
This institute focuses on the role of tissue inflammation in fighting disease and infection, and the mechanisms that control tissue inflammation in the body. The Institute’s work has immediate implications for anti-cancer strategies and approaches to improved vaccines.

Northeastern University Center for Renewable Energy Technology
This center aims to be at the frontier of science and technology of clean energy conversion and storage.

Center for STEM Education
This university-wide center aspires to play a key role in shaping and implementing the K-20 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Education strategy at Northeastern University, and to impact STEM teaching and learning at all levels, both locally and nationally.

Center for Translational NeuroImaging
The Center for Translational NeuroImaging endeavors to provide services to the academic community interested in  animal modeling and drug testing to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of CNS diseases. The Center is also committed to training the next generation of imaging scientists to meet the needs of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.